We made it to the lake today in time to race the Beercan. We got a late start, and crossed the starting line about 2 minutes late. But we caught up with the field. In time to come in third out of five!! Woot woot!
We headed to arky and put out an anchor and are waiting for the riff-raff to show up.
Lovely sunset.
We went to a BBQ at Rob and Jen’s house this afternoon. Many of the couples had babies under 18 months or so that weren’t here last time we saw these guys!! How. Time. Flies.
Rob’s blue bonnets were in rare form. Just beautiful.
And one last shot of the pascal sky as we stopped by the marina on the way home tonight.
We were successful tonight! The comet is definitely not as bright as it must have been just a few days ago. I have seen some really clear pictures of it taken from Austin. But, now that it is a bit higher in the sky, it sets later and so it may be easier to make out after the sun has set. But it is definitely faint. We drove out to Iguana Grill as the sun was setting. I think we spotted it around 8:25pm, or about 50 minutes after sunset. I was not able to see it with my naked eye. We brought binoculars, and I was able to see it pretty clearly through those. I used a 3-5 second exposure on my camera and was able to catch it faintly. Can you see it to the left of the waxing cresent moon?
My first comet shot!
The comet PANSTARRS is out and about and is supposed to be visible to the unaided eye. So Monte and I went out after sunset to try to catch a glimpse of it. We were not successful. The sky was pretty, though. This was one of the shots I took – sans comet.
The sky was lovely at sunset tonight.
Last night Mercury was at the farthest distance from the sun that it so quickly follows over the horizon. It is usually not visible; its glow being washed out by the sun. But for the next few nights you can catch a glimpse of Mercury low in the west, just before it sets about an hour after the sun.
This is a shot I took as we were leaving the marina tonight. It’s hard to see. Look left of center above the horizon.
These are a few shots of the Full Wolf Moon from last night, shot from Nirvana. It’s challenging to get a photo of a full moon, with a point and shoot camera, from a boat. 🙂 But it was beautiful!
Tonight the sky is clear in Austin. The gibbous moon and Jupiter appear closer tonight than they will until the year 2026. So, I went outside tonight with my Canon PowerShot D-10 and tried a number of settings – stopping up/down, increasing shutter speed, etc, etc. This is the shot.
Gratuitous side note: As I was drafting this blog post, I was thinking about the fact that Jupiter and the moon will be closer tonight than they will for another decade or so… and for whatever reason a song popped into my head: Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls, from their album with the same name, 1989. Don’t know why, but there it is. I love this song, as much as I did when I heard it two dozen years ago. Here’s the youtube link for you to enjoy, too. If you like this, then just listen to the entire album, it’s fantastic. Heck, listen to all the Indigo Girls’ songs. Great vocals, great harmony, great acoustic sound. A little factoid for you… the year after this album came out, the Indigo Girls were up for Best New Artist in the Grammy Awards, but lost out to… (wait for it) Milli Vanilli. Sad, but true.
Monte, Julie and I hit the lake today. It was a nice day, no wind to speak of, but sunny – temps in the low 70s. We motored to Arky South, anchored and played rummy for a bit.
Dinner at Chuy’s.
A new Downton Abbey episode tonight.
Good day, indeed.
Today is the last day of my vacation. Tomorrow it’s back to work for me.
My day started with a mimosa and ended with a glass of champagne — with this absolutely gorgeous sunset squeezed in between. I snapped this as we headed to BB Rover’s for a quick dinner.
Monte and I have discovered the Showtime series called The Tudors. We don’t have Showtime, but BBC America is broadcasting past seasons’ episodes via cable. Yesterday and today have been a marathon session of season’s 1 and 2. I found seasons 3 & 4 on Amazon Instant Video, so we can stream them for free at our leisure. 🙂 Speaking of leisure… I can’t wait til Friday!
We went for another sail yesterday. It was a beautiful, mild day. I took this shot as we were leaving our marina’s cove. It’s a giant cross out in the middle of nowhere on Graveyard Point. It’s at least 15′ tall and made out of steel beams that appeared out of the blue one day a year or two ago. No small feat for whoever put it up overnight. The guys at the marina like to refer to it as the “immaculate erection.” heh heh.
Anyway, it’s hard for me to sail past it without thinking of Him. I thought it was appropriate to post this pic today, on Christmas Eve. A reminder of what it’s supposed to be about.
Have a Merry Christmas with the ones you love!!
Last night my mom and I went over to Noreen and David’s for dinner. Colleen and Jake drove over and joined us. After dinner we all sat around just telling funny stories for a couple hours. It’s nice to laugh like that. Everyone in my family is a comedian it seems…
Instead of driving all the way back to Seattle, Colleen and Jake slept at my mom’s, as we were planning on going to Francine and Art’s in the morning to watch the Seahawks game… a rare treat for me, since in Texas all that is usually on the networks is the Cowboys or the Texans (ho hum).
When I went out the front door to get the paper I was greeted by this stunning view of the Olympics. They seemed particularly white today.
Francine whipped up some biscuits & gravy and mimosa’s — breakfast of football divas 🙂 Noreen and David came over after church and we all cheered and screamed at the refs until the Seahawks won in overtime. Awesome!
We made a trip down to southeast Austin to run an errand or two this morning. Since we were heading down there, we planned to play a round of golf at Jimmy Clay Golf Course. So, we loaded our clubs into the car on our way out.
We played 18 holes. Not only has it been a while since we played golf together. It’s been a very long time since we played 18. We usually play a twilight 9 holes after work. But we got there early enough today to hit the range, the chipping and putting greens, and then play a full round. We even got a cart today… a treat… as we usually walk it.
It was a nice day – sunny with highs in the 70’s. I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo, but when we got there, we found a big flock of Monk parakeets (aka Quaker parrots) in residence at the golf course. They were noisily greeting golfers from the oak trees around the clubhouse. When we finished our round, they had gone – they must have returned to their nest for the evening.
A nice day.
Hmmm. What’s wrong with this picture? 🙂
Just another B-dock sunset.
Sheila365 